Coming Soon
NOROI: THE CURSE
2005
Director
Kōji Shiraishi
Starring
Jin Muraki
Rio Kanno
Tomono Kuga
Runtime
115 minutes
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A mixed media odyssey from prolific filmmaker Kōji Shiraishi, NOROI: THE CURSE examines the strange case of Masafumi Kobayashi – a paranormal researcher who disappeared while making a documentary about "ectoplasmic worms." This is a twisting, turning analog horror project that alchemizes urban legends, supernatural hauntings, and true crime shocks into found footage artistry. NOROI is best watched on the big screen – where there’s no escape.
“NOROI constructs a whole world to inhabit out of paranormal VHS documentaries, psychick children, tabloid news, the remnants of drowned witch villages, and the powerful demonologies which animate the central mythos. It is best to watch NOROI by knowing little or nothing about it save that it is a fake paranormal VHS doc, the last of its line, as the researcher responsible has disappeared after uncovering a story too vast to be fit onto VHS cassettes. The only other logical comparison to this movie in scope and folkloric jolt would be THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT, yet where that movie felt impressionist, ambient and sketchy (in the best possible way), NOROI brings the weight of the cosmos down upon you, a heavy comet of ice and dirt and blood and dread and feathers which knows your name and is coming for you and when it does it ends up a relief. NOROI feels Lovecraftian in inspiration and extent, but derives most of its charge from old-school Japanese demon stories of sorcerous cabal, a mountain of dead bodies, a nightmare tunnel to a place not better than where you began. Highest Possible Recommendation.” - Nathaxnne Walker
“NOROI constructs a whole world to inhabit out of paranormal VHS documentaries, psychick children, tabloid news, the remnants of drowned witch villages, and the powerful demonologies which animate the central mythos. It is best to watch NOROI by knowing little or nothing about it save that it is a fake paranormal VHS doc, the last of its line, as the researcher responsible has disappeared after uncovering a story too vast to be fit onto VHS cassettes. The only other logical comparison to this movie in scope and folkloric jolt would be THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT, yet where that movie felt impressionist, ambient and sketchy (in the best possible way), NOROI brings the weight of the cosmos down upon you, a heavy comet of ice and dirt and blood and dread and feathers which knows your name and is coming for you and when it does it ends up a relief. NOROI feels Lovecraftian in inspiration and extent, but derives most of its charge from old-school Japanese demon stories of sorcerous cabal, a mountain of dead bodies, a nightmare tunnel to a place not better than where you began. Highest Possible Recommendation.” - Nathaxnne Walker